In September of 1914, the journalist and politician C.F.G. Masterman invitedBritain’s leading novelists to a meeting at Wellington House in London todiscuss writing in support of the war. As the newly appointed head of the WarPropaganda Bureau, one of Masterman’s first duties was to recruit major popularauthors of the time to help initiate the campaign to justify Britain’s militaryinvolvement in the war. Writers like Doyle even brought Sherlock Holmes out ofretirement to make him a witness to Hun savagery.

Critics of Masterman’s propaganda called it too literary, too elite, and toorational, and in 1917 the WPB became superseded by the newly formed Ministry ofInformation. The new propaganda had to be more visual, aimed at the masses, andunafraid to use outright fabrication when needed. When America broke itsneutrality and joined the Allied Cause, Woodrow Wilson created the Committee onPublic Information, later called “the world’s greatest adventure in advertising”by its Chairman George Creel, to justify America’s entry into the war to theAmerican public. Wilson had won his 1916 election on a “He kept us out of thewar” ticket and it was crucial that he justify the government’s change inpolicy to the public. Exploring the evolving notions of propaganda during thewar means understanding, in the words of a poem by Wallace Irwin, “How Art puton khaki and went into action” (“Thoughts Inspired by a Wartime Billboard”).

This panel will accept papers on the British and American propaganda ministries,their materials, their methods, their organisation, and their influence onpopular culture as well as the relationship between propaganda and advertisingafter the war and the psychology of British and American propaganda during theFirst World War.

All 300 word proposals should be emailed to Anurag Jain at a.c.jain_at_qmul.ac.ukby September 8th, 2005 (9/8/5)